8/12/15

DOWN UNDER: Mets Minor League Results - 8-11-15STAR OF THE DAY: TJ Rivera with a 4-5, 2 HR dayHONORABLE MENTION: Gavin Cecchini with 4 hits, and Marcos Molina for his stellar first game after rehab, Eusebio Arias for striking out 6 in 2 innings, and Savannah pitchers). Milton Ramos, too.

Las Vegas went with lefty Darin Gorski on the road in Reese Kaplan country in west Texas. Feels...6 runs in 5 innings for Mr.Gorski.Binghamton's Seth Lugo looked to resume his dominant ways tonight. He didn't, but the pen sure did, with 4 hitless innings.TJ Rivera (.341) went deep for his first B Met homer. He had his second homer, too, and a double, and a single. Awesome! The Cecchini hit machine (.320) added 4 hits as well. Brock Peterson went 3-5, with his 9th homer. Twelve runs in the last 4 innings!

St Lucie had rehab heaven tonight. David Wright played 3rd (hooray) and went 1-3. Plus two innings of 1 run ball from Rafael Montero (3 hits and a walk), and 4.2 scoreless from Marcos Molina. Hooray again! Hepple and Regnault got the win and save with fine relief pitching.Dominic Smith added double # 31 and a single (.311).Savannah went with Corey Oswalt tonight, sporting an 8-4, 3.68 record and trying to reduce his hits allowed. Mission accomplished, as he won, and he and 2 relievers combined for a 2 hit shutout. Guillorme has heated up, with his 2 hits climbing him up to .308.Brooklyn's very own Andrew Church hit the hill tonight. It hit him back as he gave up 6 runs. The Cyclones gave up 4 unearned runs, spoiling a solid offensive night highlighted by Vince Siena's 3 hits, pushing him back up to .301.

Kingsport slated Gabe Llanes for his first start after 17 innings in the GCL.7 innings, 5 hits, 3 runs, and 6 Is later, he had a Heck of a start. And let's hear it for Eusebio Arias, who struck out 6 in 2 innings relief.Kingsport's Kevin Kaczmarski (.328) and Pat Mazelka (.355)combined for 5 hits, as their blazing hitting continued. Milton Ramos drove in 4 runs.The GCL Mets team was scoring runs and stealing bases today in winning 8-4. Ali Sanchez got on base via 3 walks and a hit, and Yeffrey de Aza had hit and sits at .317. Yes, another 18 year old SS. Jose Medina threw 4 solid innings, followed by 5 by Grigorix Estevez for the win. 9 hits and 11 walks for G Met hitters.

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comments:

We seem loaded with real prospects at SS from Double AA on down. We were empty for awhile- hopefully one of them turns out to be the real deal. Chances are with this many we are in good shape. Is this the same Marcus Molina that was supposed to have TJS?

Bob, it is the very same Molina. No TJS. Hooray. Two outings, pitching very well, let's hope he is healthy from here on out.

By the way, I was a little under the weather yesterday, so I did not finish the Vegas portion of the update. Add another honorable mention for Matt Reynolds, who did play SS so I guess the elbow is better. He had 4 RBIs and has 57 in 89 games, which is really impressive, so let's not forget him.

Alex Torres went one third inning and allowed a hit, and Dario Alvarez a scoreless inning. He is now, in AAA, with 6.1 scoreless, 11 Ks. After nearly 2 months of doing the same at AA. WOW WOW. Has to be Sept call up.

I was very glad the Mets didn't trade Molina. The timing of his maturation suits the club very well, as he should be (fingers crossed) ready at the time when the Mets will be faced with escalating contracts.

I don't care about any Las Vegas statistics, throw 'em away. Statistics-wise, I've always felt that St. Lucie gave that truest overall picture.

The strange thing about Molina is there was very little, actually no information on his injury made public. I couldn't find anything about his injury and it may never have been anything to do with his UCL. Richard Jones

Rivera wasn't getting enough AB's in AAA with Herrera, Reynolds, and Tovar all on the roster.

And, while I hope Rivera can over come odds, I don't think anyone sees him as a real prospect - virtually 0 chance he gets taken in a Rule V draft

The guy who is getting screwed is Cecchini - he has absolutely ZERO to prove in AA any longer - but he is blocked in AAA, and the Mets have no need to force him up - isn't hitting something like .375 since July 1st?

Rivera should be up over tovar and reynolds. he has hit at every level. he killed it in Binghamton last year leading the entire organanzation in avg. ( i beleive the second time doing so).

Gavin is having a nice year, but i think tj is the guy with nothing else to prove. if mets promoted on talent rivera woud be in bigs. they promote by who the invested/wasted the most money on. we would be such a better team if that wasnt the case. ive followed him since hs in the Bronx and he is the real deal. seems to always be the star of any team he is put on. yet ignored bc he was drafted free agent. But a guy hitting .260 that was givin millions can be promoted its just crazy.

Not sure we are looking at the same stats. Rivera hit .358 in binghamton last year.... What numbers are you talking about? All rivera does it put up numbers that have clearly out shown gavin every year lol. I think your confused. Not trying to argu just something i dont understand.

And fielding stats you may want to check those out too. He can field and hit.

Lew, about how Gavin has "zero" to prove at AA. First, he needs to learn how to play a competent shortstop, first of all. Secondly, there's a numbers issue. I think he's fine where he is right now. The season has got another month or so left.

Those who compare Gavin to TJ forget Gavin is 5 years younger. Gavin has a higher ceiling. And so does the young Herrera.

I feel bad for TJ. At other times, he'd surely have gotten more of a major league opportunity. But AAA is also blocked by Muno, that is 4 solid middle IFs there. And Tovar has hit reasonably well and has 30 steals while not playing every single game!

My recent advice to TJ was to keep hitting, but do whatever you can to add power. So yesterday's game was very encouraging if you are a true TJ believer. He would be a nice bat on the Mets' bench in Sept if not for 40 man roster issues.

Anon - Rivera is 5 years older than Cecchini - that is a lifetime in the prospect world. In fact, a 26 year old in AA would not be considered a prospect by anyone.

And, there is more to stats than batting average.

Rivera has shown minimal power in his career - his career high in HR is 9, he did in 2012 - 8 of which came in Savannah when he was 23 and was older than the league average

Cecchini's ISO this season is 50 points higher than Rivera's was last year in AA - and that doesn't control for the fact that Cecchini is so much younger than Rivera.

Rivera has one tool - he HITS - and that he does well, but he won't hit close to .330 in the ML. His BABIP in the minor is ridiculously high (at some point it is a sign of skill, I will give you) - the year he hit .358 in AA, his BABIP was an unsustainable .399 -- MLB average is around .300 - if you knock his BABIP to .320, his average is .290 -- which is solid, but not great for a guy without power.

For comparison, this year Cecchini is hitting .320 with a BAIP of .349.

As far as defense, all I can find is that Rivera committed 13 errors in 51 games as a SS in 2012 and hasn't played SS regularly since.

Rivera is a great hitter - and I would love for him to make the team being a NY guy, but he isn't a real MLB prospect - not with his age and his lack of power.

And there is no way he can be considered better than Cecchini - Rivera's AA OPS in 85 games over his age 25-26 seasons - .824.

Cecchini's OPS in 102 AA games in his age 21 season is .826.

@ James - as far as defense - I can't find the stats, but I read somewhere that he has had few if any errors in his past couple of weeks - so, maybe he is getting better -- frankly though, he will get better in Vegas because the infield out their is supposedly very fast, more challenging.

rivera is only older in his league bc the mets screw him. spent way to long in st lucie while they moved up guys hitting half of what he does.then screwed again demoting to AA when he was hitting better and doing better than the majority of infielders. Rivera gets on base, hits, and drives in runs just as many as the power hitters. Not saying rivera has to be SS. but he can play all posituons and does so well. im sure fielding would get better too if he was given an actual position ( like most ppl named) to play everyday but they move him everywhere. no relative just a fan of true baseball. not this politics crap they leaves you with a team full of below avg guys. idc about the money given the scout reports. he leads every team he has been on and would at any level. the age thing is just redic, everyone knows he shouldnt be where he is.

I will say this about Rivera - he has come a lot further than anyone would have reasonably expected. So, it is possible he continues to exceed expectations and forces the issue.

The 2 HRs in AA is a good start - I think if he showed real power, the organization would give him more chances.

The problem right now is that the AAA system is clogged with guys who project to be no better than utility players in the majors - Muno, Tovar, and, to a lesser extent, Reynolds - Rivera is in that list, and it is hard to say he is superior to any or all of them.

I think by next season Muno, Tovar and likely Reynolds (unless he starts playing 3b again) will be out of the system and Herrera will be in the MLB - so Rivera will likely have a chance to play 2b every day in AAA -- I think he has passed Mazzilli in the minor league depth charts.

So, hey, anything is possible - I could see him getting the Muno type shot next year

Rivera is similar to Matt Reynolds and Josh Satin... professional minor league bats that just never seem to get a proper shot at the Bigs. I don't know why, but Mets evaluators know they only have 25 slots on their parent roster and it's just really really hard to get there, and then, excel there.

As for the Rivera family, I am proud that they have been long time Mack's Mets readers here and I welcome their readership and, their comments, if they choose to air them.